This past Sunday, on June 1st, 2008, two men set sail from Long Beach, California heading towards Hawaii. That in itself is not unique or unusual, people sail across the Pacific Ocean all the time. What is unusual is that they are, more aptly going to drift on a raft to Hawaii. Four men did this in 1958 and arrived safe and sound on Kona Beach, but what is different this time around is that the raft these men are using are made out of… plastic bottles!

Dr. Marcus Eriksen and Joel Paschal are the two sailors aboard JUNK, a raft made out of recycled water bottles. Weighing at 1.5 tons, it is anticipated that JUNK will arrive in Hawaii in 6 weeks time with our intrepid travellers. Why are they doing this? To help raise awareness about litter in our oceans.

Here’s a video of a quick interview with these boys before they set off:

I look forward to hearing about their adventures and will be checking out JUNK, the blog that will be documenting their journey, over the next few weeks.

For other references and pieces on the Junk Raft and its inhabitants:

- A post on Discover Magazine’s blog, “Raft of Plastic Bottles Sets Sail for Hawaii”

- An article in the National Post, “A little more Junk in the water”

Of course, plastic is not the only item that doesn’t belong on shorelines and waterways that we find. Every year over the last 15 years during the Vancouver Aquarium’s week-long TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup, some of the most common items removed are cigarette butts, food wrappers, and beverage cans. In 2007 alone, 87,489 kgs of litter was collected. For me, I don’t do measurements all that well, I don’t register how much things weigh in kilograms either. So, I can’t picture what this means. When I convert it to pounds 87,489 kgs becomes just over 192,880 lbs – the equivalent of 11,151.5 Canadians, a family of four beluga whales, nearly 22.5 hummers, 6 garbage trucks, or 28 elephants! That’s a lot of trash!

Help keep our environment clean by registering to be part of the 15th Annual TD Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup. Once you’ve registered, choose to start a cleanup location or join one near you.